1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a cloth, and particularly, to a cloth for ink-jet printing, a method of fabricating the same and further to a process of ink-jet printing using the same, wherein clear-cut printed images can be obtained thereon without ink passing through gaps between fibers, even if the cloth is a cloth of a loose texture (referred to hereinafter as a low density cloth) such as a low density woven or knitted fabric, and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
For an ink jet printing, a so-called pretreatment process wherein an ink-receiving layer is provided on a cloth, and also, an improvement in the ink itself have been put into practice in an attempt to obtain clear-cut images without ink bleeding.
There have been developed, for example, a cloth wherein an ink-holding layer composed of a non-dyeable material selected from the group consisting of a water-soluble polymer, water-soluble salts, and water-insoluble organic fine particles is formed to absorb discharged ink for temporarily holding the ink therein so that the ink can be prevented from bleeding, and a method of dyeing the same (Japanese Patent Publication No. S63-31594), a method of ink-jet dyeing whereby ink blended with a gelling and sizing agent is injected onto a fiber structure pretreated with a gelling agent (Japanese Patent Publication No. S63-52151), and a printing process wherein a first compound contains a gel-forming species while a second compound contains a gelling initiation species, and at least either of the compounds contains a coloring agent such that the bleeding of color can be inhibited between adjacent coloring regions in the respective compounds (Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. H8-209049).
All of these conventional techniques, however, have been found effective for a cloth such as a woven or knitted fabric fabricated of threads with a weight fineness of not less than about 150 denier (d), a close-woven or close-knitted fabric (high density fabric) of a warp density of not less than about 120 warps/inch, or a filling density of not less than about 150 fillings/inch, and the like but not so effective for a low density cloth such as a woven or knitted fabric fabricated of threads with a weight fineness of less than about 150 denier (d), a relatively coarse-woven or coarse-knitted fabric of a warp density of less than about 120 warps/inch, or filling density of less than about 150 fillings/inch, and the like.
More specifically, there has arisen a problem that ink passes through gaps between fibers before achieving an object of obtaining clear-cut images without ink bleeding.
More particularly, when conventional ink-jet dyeing methods are applied to a low density cloth having large gaps between the fibers thereof, only a small portion of the ink injected on the surface of the cloth stays on the fibers, allowing a greater part of the ink to pass through (strike through) the gaps between the fibers.
This renders the ink utilization ratio very low, and more importantly, creates a cumbersome problem of the ink passing through the gaps between the fibers reaching and contaminating (stains) the surface of a drum for holding the cloth, thereby causing the ink remaining on the surface of the drum to contaminate a newly arrived cloth.
Therefore, preventing ink from passing through the gaps has been an important issue.